Behold I stand at the door and knock

What bliss to hit a city centre this close to Christmas..... and not need to shop! We've had a day out in Manchester that was well worth the silly o'clock alarm call and early train. Main aim - The Holman Hunt exhibit at Manchester Art Gallery. Mum and Dad had been some weeks ago and were up for a second look - and I really wanted to see The Scapegoat, especially given my growing understanding of the atonement over recent months. But that wasn't the major draw today.

I've never been a big fan of the British-looking Jesus, and most of Holman Hunt's depictions of Christ are red-haired and alabaster-skinned. And "The Light of the World" is one of the most-reproduced artworks of the period - it even makes it onto the vestry wall in Dibley! Enough to send my aesthetic alarm bells ringing, one would think. Well, our God is a God of surprises.

Now, I'm not really well up on my pre-raphaelites, and had always assumed that they were all about poetry, Shakespeare, abundantly-haired women and Greek mythology. I hadn't quite realised how extensive the religious art of the period was. And I wasn't quite prepared for the impact of seeing "The Light of the World" up close.

It's amazing. Luminescent (is that a real word?), engaging, and with a face that seems to contain all faces - at different times I saw both my parents in that face, and even hints of myself. Almost like the use of icons in Orthodox traditions, I found myself looking into and through the painted face to a deep well-spring of love. Bizarrely, an English Victorian ginger Jesus has done what most religious art has never managed to do for me.

There were three different versions of the painting there. Like all Holman Hunt's work, each is loaded with meaning. The one that held me and brought me back to it several times was the lifesize one. The others didn't quite work facially somehow. They were somehow more impersonal. And any reproductions - online or printed - obviously can't do it justice. That one.... that one entreats. I even went back to sit with it after coffee. Jesus knocks then waits patiently for our response. Revelation 3:20. What a great start to Christmas!!




Blessings, Auntie Ratchett x

Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision runs at Manchester Art Gallery until 11th January 2009. (And while you're there, check out the Vallette stuff on the first floor.)

An ordinary life?

After a year of discovering the things they never told me about vicar training, I thought I was pretty clued up. Nope! I am continually being surprised. Over the past ten days - in the name of ministerial formation - I have:

- Hugged a tree
- Squeezed my lemons
- Taught a balloon modelling class
- Slept on the church floor
- Learned Baroness Thatcher's technique for quietening a room
- Decorated Santa's grotto in purple and orange
- Marshalled a veritable army
- Laughed until I cried
- Finally started to read 'Punk Monk'
- Got very lost with satnav
- Iced gingerbread snowmen
- Said goodbye
- Bought a Welsh language hymn book
- Accepted a curacy
- Enjoyed vodka-laden pasta
- Stuffed many, many envelopes
- Been bitten by a small child

And you know what........ I love it! (well, except for the biting bit)

Blessings, Auntie Ratchett x